Ex-AKB48 idol Rina Hirata to stop doing gravure DVDs, launches apparel brand
Former AKB48 idol Rina Hirata has announced that she will no longer release image videos. Her latest DVD, My Girl’s Weird Sense of Distance, which came out on September 23.
The DVD, her first in over a year, is an incredible 190 minutes and features Hirata barely clothed throughout. The tiny bikini she wears in the cover image is stretched to the max to cover her nipples and crotch.
The 27-year-old Hirata was a member of AKB48 from 2011 to 2016. Among the legions of young women who have passed through the ranks of AKB48 and its sister groups over the years, Hirata stands out for at least two reasons. Firstly, she’s fantastically curvy, and boasts an F-cup bust. Secondly, she’s biracial, with an American father and was born in Arizona.
Hirata made the announcement at a media event in Tokyo to launch the DVD on October 26. She said that she would graduate from gravure DVD after her next releases, meaning we should have at least one more to enjoy.
We are not sure if this means she’s retiring from gravure as a whole, and might just be a half-baked marketing ploy to sell more DVDs with a variant on the “last chance” slogan.
Whether or not she continues to do gravure shoots may also depend on how much time she has, given her other commitments right now.
In 2024, Hirata revealed that she is also doing a regular secretarial job to gain experience. Her influencer and gravure career has faded a little since an impressive start in 2019, and she is branching out as she enters her late twenties.
She has also announced in August that she has launched her own apparel business, DKTK, following in the footsteps of other idols who have launched or produced apparel ventures like porn star (and SKE48 member) Yua Mikami and fellow AKB alum Tomomi Itano and Haruna Kojima, and current member Erii Chiba.
Hirata will announce more details about DKTK’s brand and collections in the near future, with plans to start sales within the year.
While we wish her all the best with her business venture, we hope this won’t be the last that we see of Rina Hirata’s wonderfully curvy body.
